Last dance with Caesars Diamond

Cue up the finale: the gravy train is pulling into the station, but before it does there’s still a little time left for one last dance. Like many readers, my Caesars Diamond status is set to expire at the end of January 2025. But before we see the light of February, I’m taking one last dance with Caesars Diamond benefits.

In this post, I’ll share my plans for using a bunch of Caesars Diamond benefits before (and after) my Caesars status expires on 1/31/25.

Booking the complimentary Atlantis stay

Of the many Caesars Diamond benefits, the one that I’ve written about the least is a complimentary 4-night stay at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas. That’s mainly because I’ve never booked it, but I know that many people find this to be a great benefit of Diamond status.

Caesars Diamond members can book a “complimentary” 4-night stay at The Cove at Atlantis Paradise Island in The Bahamas. The word complimentary is in quotation marks above because it’s not really free. There’s a resort fee of about $60 per night and a daily housekeeping gratuity of ~$7 per person per night. Each “free” night works out to be almost $100 — and then you’re mostly stuck eating on-property at inflated prices. It’s a great deal compared to paid rates, but not really a free stay. There’s also a stated requirement that you need to gamble in the casino for at least 4 hours during your stay or you may be charged $150 per night. I’m not sure what the latest is on enforcement of this.

I’ve tried to book this stay a couple of times in the past and given up after long waits on hold to speak to someone in the casino department.

Until recently, I thought that my chance had passed for good on this benefit. On an episode of Frequent Miler on the Air late last month, we had a question from a reader asking if it is possible to book the Atlantis stay benefit for a check in date that wouldn’t happen until after Caesars status expired. While I knew that you didn’t need to show proof of Caesars status at Atlantis, I had always assumed that it wasn’t possible to book a date beyond the end of the current status year (which ends on January 31st). In response to that show, we received some mixed reports about booking Atlantis stays for check-in after January 31st (i.e. after Caesars Diamond status is scheduled to end).

However, I think the mixed nature of data points likely had to do with the source. If you call Caesars Rewards, I imagine they will say that the stay must be both booked and consumed before status expires. However, you actually have to call the Atlantis casino department to book.

I booked my own stay yesterday. To do so, I called 1-888-877-7592 to speak with someone in the Atlantis casino department. When they answered, I explained that I have Caesars Diamond status and was looking to book my complimentary stay. I had to provide my Caesars Diamond number and information like name, address, and birthdate so that they could set me up with an Atlantis Players Club card. I then provided dates so they could check availability. My preferred dates were available, so from there it was just a matter of providing a credit card deposit.

A reader had previously reported that this offer can be booked for stays through June 2025. The phone agent with whom I spoke indicated that the stay could be booked for check in through December 2025. I didn’t test that, but I had no trouble booking dates in May 2025.

I’ll note that I’m not sure whether we’ll make this stay or not. The cancellation deadline is 7 days prior to arrival, so we’ve got some time to consider whether we want to take the trip.

On the one hand, it might be a lot of fun to go to Atlantis. The “Aquaventure” water park, which we’ve seen offered as an expensive cruise excursion, is complimentary for guests staying on-property. I imagine that my kids would love a few days of that.

On the other hand, it just doesn’t fit particularly well with existing plans — I’m not sure that we realistically have time to go to Atlantis. However, there’s also some slim potential to parlay a deal: a reader pointed out the fact that some cruise line casinos have wanted to see proof of an offer from a land-based casino. I think that most of them want to see an offer for multiple complimentary nights and some included resort credit, but I figure that it won’t hurt to have a complimentary booking at Atlantis to show for a future cruise matching opportunity.

Will we actually visit Atlantis? Will we parlay the free room offer into a free cruise? I don’t know, but once I got to a human on the phone, it only took a few minutes to book. I will note that the system hung up after 28 minutes on hold on my first call. There’s definitely a wait to speak with an agent.

Because the wait had been so long and I had other things going on, I didn’t get a chance to inquire about the cost to upgrade to other towers / room types. However, the “2 doubles” room type that we booked for what should effectively be around $75 per night (presumably plus tax) is a great deal as compared to the cash rates for the same dates and room type (seen below).

With the cost of meals, I’m sure that this stay would end up costing us a decent chunk of change, but it could make for a fun little escape. We’ll see.

Worth a mention: Part of the reason I picked May dates is because Tim’s chart about the best time to visit each country in the world had checkmarks for The Bahamas in March, April, May, and June.

Overall, booking this benefit was super simple.

A birthday bet

A lesser-known Caesars Diamond benefit is a monthly $20 free bet on the Caesars online sportsbook each month after you’ve wagered $20 or more in the previous month (only available in those states with legal online sports betting). In your birthday month, the bonus bet becomes a $40 bet.

Since January is my birthday month, I have a $40 bonus bet to wager before the end of the month. I don’t yet have a real plan for it. I’ll probably come up with some sort of parlay for this weekend’s games that makes use of the bonus bet. I’ll throw caution to the wind here and see if I can turn their $40 in free play into something. This is just a bonus, so I won’t sweat it too hard.

Note that you can not cash out a free bet, so the only use for this is to bet on something. If you win, you can keep the cash earnings.

One last Caesars stay (complimentary thanks to tier credits)

In my 2025 casino status strategy post, I noted that I intend to go to Atlantic City this month to match my Caesars Diamond status to Bally’s Superstar in the hopes of later returning to Atlantic City and using that to match my way back to Ocean Prime after March 1st.  The step that needs to be done now (as in before my Caesars Diamond status expires) is the in-person match from Caesars to Bally’s in Atlantic City. That process should only take a few minutes, but it’s necessary now since I won’t otherwise have meaningful casino status starting from February 1st.

I thus intend to head to Atlantic City before the end of this month. I’ll note that I can’t do all the matching at once. Since I matched to Ocean Prime in March of 2023, I need to wait until March 2025 to match to Ocean Prime again. But if I don’t go to Atlantic City now, I won’t have any useful status to match to Ocean Prime in March.

I’ll therefore go now and match my Caesars Diamond to Bally’s Superstar. That match is technically only a 90-day match (you technically need to earn tier credits to extend the status through the end of the year), but that’s long enough for my purposes (and I think the card prints with a December expiration date).

Because my options to get to/from Atlantic City are either a 4.5hr drive each way or a flight and bus on American Airlines, I think it’s pretty likely that I’ll need to stay the night.

Luckily, as a Caesars Diamond member, I have access to reduced hotel rates when I log into my Caesars account. Additionally, resort fees are waived for Diamond members and I’ll get complimentary valet parking (if I drive).

Things get a bit better yet for me. Caesars has (or had?) an ongoing promotion where you earn a free night in Las Vegas or Atlantic City with each 5,000 tier credits you earn. As fate would have it, I found ways to earn 5,000 tier credits in 2024 and as such I have what is essentially a Caesars free night certificate that expires on 1/31/25. I didn’t expect to be able to use this, but since it’s looking like I’ll overnight in Atlantic City, I’ll probably put this to use for a free night.

Caesars Diamond celebration dinner (used) and lounge access (will use)

I’ve written in the past about the Caesars Diamond celebration dinner, whereby a Diamond member can enjoy up to $100 off of a meal at participating dining locations at Caesars properties once a year. While we’d seen mixed data points for years, data points in the last year or two indicate that a Diamond member actually needs to earn 100 tier credits to get this benefit.

In my case, I did naturally earn 100 tier credits last year and my wife and I used our Caesars Diamond Celebration Dinners in Las Vegas. I therefore won’t get a chance to use it again in Atlantic City.

However, Diamond members can access the Laurel Lounge at Caesars in Atlantic City for $5 in comp dollars (500 rewards credits). Since I had previously moved some Wyndham Rewards points to Caesars, I have plenty of rewards credits to access the Laurel Lounge. After having visited the lounge at Ocean Casino Resort, I’ll be curious to see how the Laurel Lounge stacks up (and I’ll be sure to eat and drink more than $5 in value!). I expect it’ll essentially be like a buffet with bar, which is probably a great deal for what were 500 Wyndham Rewards points.

Caesars Diamond free drinks?

I’ve sometimes heard people say that Caesars Diamond members get a free drink or free drinks at bars on the casino floor (even without gambling). I’ve heard mixed data points on that being honored, but I recently saw a Youtube video where the person filming was in Atlantic City and mentioned getting up to 4 drinks per day for free, whether handcrafted coffees or alcoholic drinks.

I’m not much of a drinker, but I’ll be curious to see if I can get a couple of free coffees or a soda or maybe even a mocktail at a casino bar. My hopes are not high for this benefit, but I’ll give it a shot.

Bottom line

My days as a Caesars Diamond member are numbered, so I’m making sure to take advantage of existing benefits while I still can. I’ve now booked my “complimentary” 4-night stay at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas (for a stay well after my Caesars status expires) and I intend to use my birthday sportsbook bet, a free night stay at a Caesars property, and a visit to a casino VIP lounge (with food and drink) for $5 in rewards credits. This will be one last Harrah (pun intended!) before my Caesars Diamond days come to an end. My final move will be to push all-in on Bally’s Superstar status with the hopes of being able to parlay that into at least one more free MSC cruise with a match later this year.

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